Last Modified: Wednesday, April 3, 2013 at 12:09 p.m.

Pam Ayers, left, and P.G. Schafer, right, both tea party members, hold signs to protest Common Core across the street from Marion Technical Institute, where school administrators were meeting on Southeast Fort King Street in Ocala Wednesday morning.

Bruce Ackerman/Ocala Star-Banner

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Common Core is part of the new national education road map that most states have adopted to replace No Child Left Behind.

Common Core, which will be fully implemented statewide in fall 2014, leaving behind — for the most part — the curriculum-based Sunshine State Standards to focus on critical thinking through comparison and contrast.

The new concept is designed to better prepare students for college, as well as help those students heading directly into the workforce after high school graduation.

Kevin Baird — the chairman of the Common Core Institute and its foundation, Center for College and Career Readiness — led officials on a four-hour tour of Common Core and its implementation. The event was held at Marion Technical Institute on Fort King Street.

Officials said 31 school board members from 16 districts in Florida were on hand for the training. Superintendent of Schools George Tomyn and all five board members attended at least a portion of seminar.

The attendees were met by local tea party protesters, who lined Fort King Street before the event began at 10 a.m. The group was not protesting the presence of the public officials, but the Common Core concept itself.

As part of its protocol, the school district called the Ocala Police Department to monitor the protest because it was in front of a school. Officials said the protest was peaceful.

Common Core, which is heavily based on research and adapting real-world concepts into all subject areas, including math, is designed to better prepare students for both post-secondary education and career opportunities right out of high school.

School Board Chairman Ron Crawford said the presentation was useful. He said the Common Core goal to better educate students heading directly into the workforce is very important.

He noted, for instance, that a farmer must be able to read at college level and know science concepts more than ever before. Farmers must operate high-tech machinery now controlled by computers. A boiler operator must have high-level math skills to ensure the pressure does not cause an explosion, Crawford said.

Wednesday's event was sponsored by the Florida School Boards Association. Andrea Messina, the Tallahassee association's director of board development, said it was the second of three "drive-in" boot camps statewide to help districts save money. MTI's culinary students cooked for the visitors.

Orange County board member Joie Cadle, also the association's president, said many careers right out of high school require more science and technology than ever before.

A mechanic, she noted, needs more than a tool box and experience. That mechanic needs high-tech computer skills. Many jobs require a heavy emphasis in science, she said.

Cadle noted that the new way of teaching will take time for both educators and students.

"It's going to take time for our students to learn this new way of teaching," she said.

Cadle said decades ago many young people left high school without a command of reading and were able to land career jobs. Today, with the rise of technology, students need to understand that all jobs require a high level of reading ability.

"They must realize they need reading to be successful," she said.

The Common Core standards are used internationally. When fully implemented, the benchmarks in Florida can be compared to those in other Common Core states or countries. The standards are designed to compare students around the world in order to gauge whether they can compete in a global economy.

Almost every state has chosen to follow Common Core. The exceptions are Alaska, Minnesota, Nebraska, Texas and Virginia. Most states will fully implement the standards by 2014-2015, officials say.

Outside the meeting, tea party protesters lingered for hours. Tea party spokeswoman Marguerite Cavanaugh said the group believes Florida lawmakers are to blame for agreeing to implement Common Core — the kind of decision that should be left up to local school districts, they believe.

Cavanaugh quoted a study by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute. That think-tank study estimates Common Core implementation will cost $780 million in Florida and $12 billion nationally.

Dick Gray, 66, a concerned Ocala retiree, said the federal government basically bribed the states to buy into Common Core. If the states did not, he said, they would be forced to continue trying to meet the strict guidelines of the No Child Left Behind Act.

No Child Left Behind, which was implemented in 2001 by President George W. Bush, requires all students to be proficient in reading and math by 2014. Many educators called the requirement unrealistic. Nearly every school in the country has at least one child not reading to grade level, and most districts have up to a third of their students lagging in reading.

In 2010-11, more than half of the nation's schools did not meet the standard for appropriate readiness, called adequate yearly progress, or AYP. Under No Child rules, a parent with children at a school that does not meet AYP can move him or her to schools that meet the strict regulations.

To put the local impact in perspective: Only two Marion County elementary schools met AYP that year. That gave parents at 25 elementary schools the option to transfer their child to those two schools.

Marion board member Nancy Stacy said she is concerned that Common Core will allow teachers to interject their own political agenda into subjects.

For instance, she referred to an example she learned about recently. One teacher in another state used "income inequity" as a way for students to use math in a critical-thinking exercise.

"I think there may be a better way," Stacy said after the meeting. "I want to make sure that doesn't happen in our school district."

<p>School board members from districts throughout Central Florida gathered in Ocala on Wednesday to learn more about the state's new education mandate: Common Core State Standards.</p><p>Common Core is part of the new national education road map that most states have adopted to replace No Child Left Behind.</p><p>Common Core, which will be fully implemented statewide in fall 2014, leaving behind — for the most part — the curriculum-based Sunshine State Standards to focus on critical thinking through comparison and contrast.</p><p>The new concept is designed to better prepare students for college, as well as help those students heading directly into the workforce after high school graduation.</p><p>Kevin Baird — the chairman of the Common Core Institute and its foundation, Center for College and Career Readiness — led officials on a four-hour tour of Common Core and its implementation. The event was held at Marion Technical Institute on Fort King Street.</p><p>Officials said 31 school board members from 16 districts in Florida were on hand for the training. Superintendent of Schools George Tomyn and all five board members attended at least a portion of seminar.</p><p>The attendees were met by local tea party protesters, who lined Fort King Street before the event began at 10 a.m. The group was not protesting the presence of the public officials, but the Common Core concept itself.</p><p>As part of its protocol, the school district called the Ocala Police Department to monitor the protest because it was in front of a school. Officials said the protest was peaceful.</p><p>Common Core, which is heavily based on research and adapting real-world concepts into all subject areas, including math, is designed to better prepare students for both post-secondary education and career opportunities right out of high school.</p><p>School Board Chairman Ron Crawford said the presentation was useful. He said the Common Core goal to better educate students heading directly into the workforce is very important.</p><p>He noted, for instance, that a farmer must be able to read at college level and know science concepts more than ever before. Farmers must operate high-tech machinery now controlled by computers. A boiler operator must have high-level math skills to ensure the pressure does not cause an explosion, Crawford said.</p><p>Wednesday's event was sponsored by the Florida School Boards Association. Andrea Messina, the Tallahassee association's director of board development, said it was the second of three "drive-in" boot camps statewide to help districts save money. MTI's culinary students cooked for the visitors.</p><p>Orange County board member Joie Cadle, also the association's president, said many careers right out of high school require more science and technology than ever before.</p><p>A mechanic, she noted, needs more than a tool box and experience. That mechanic needs high-tech computer skills. Many jobs require a heavy emphasis in science, she said.</p><p>Cadle noted that the new way of teaching will take time for both educators and students.</p><p>"It's going to take time for our students to learn this new way of teaching," she said.</p><p>Cadle said decades ago many young people left high school without a command of reading and were able to land career jobs. Today, with the rise of technology, students need to understand that all jobs require a high level of reading ability.</p><p>"They must realize they need reading to be successful," she said.</p><p>The Common Core standards are used internationally. When fully implemented, the benchmarks in Florida can be compared to those in other Common Core states or countries. The standards are designed to compare students around the world in order to gauge whether they can compete in a global economy.</p><p>Almost every state has chosen to follow Common Core. The exceptions are Alaska, Minnesota, Nebraska, Texas and Virginia. Most states will fully implement the standards by 2014-2015, officials say.</p><p>Outside the meeting, tea party protesters lingered for hours. Tea party spokeswoman Marguerite Cavanaugh said the group believes Florida lawmakers are to blame for agreeing to implement Common Core — the kind of decision that should be left up to local school districts, they believe.</p><p>Cavanaugh quoted a study by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute. That think-tank study estimates Common Core implementation will cost $780 million in Florida and $12 billion nationally.</p><p>Dick Gray, 66, a concerned Ocala retiree, said the federal government basically bribed the states to buy into Common Core. If the states did not, he said, they would be forced to continue trying to meet the strict guidelines of the No Child Left Behind Act.</p><p>No Child Left Behind, which was implemented in 2001 by President George W. Bush, requires all students to be proficient in reading and math by 2014. Many educators called the requirement unrealistic. Nearly every school in the country has at least one child not reading to grade level, and most districts have up to a third of their students lagging in reading.</p><p>In 2010-11, more than half of the nation's schools did not meet the standard for appropriate readiness, called adequate yearly progress, or AYP. Under No Child rules, a parent with children at a school that does not meet AYP can move him or her to schools that meet the strict regulations.</p><p>To put the local impact in perspective: Only two Marion County elementary schools met AYP that year. That gave parents at 25 elementary schools the option to transfer their child to those two schools.</p><p>Marion board member Nancy Stacy said she is concerned that Common Core will allow teachers to interject their own political agenda into subjects.</p><p>For instance, she referred to an example she learned about recently. One teacher in another state used "income inequity" as a way for students to use math in a critical-thinking exercise.</p><p>"I think there may be a better way," Stacy said after the meeting. "I want to make sure that doesn't happen in our school district."</p><p><i>Contact Joe Callahan at 867-4113 or joe.callahan@starbanner.com. Follow him Twitter @JoeOcalaNews.</i></p>